I swear, nearly every DU string I see, no matter what subject, or how
well-documented, novel, horrid or definitive the news report is; their
is generally at least one reply going something like this:

"Oh, and you are SURPRISED by this?" <-inferred sub-text: "you
are a naive boneheaded shit-for-brains to consider this real news!"

This kind of reply does several things in one stroke:
1) Lays claim to possessing a superior "above the fray" perspective,
so superior as to insult you without any consequences.
2) Dismisses the actual information posted as trivial, not worth
wasting your time reading, and "old" information,
3) Attempts to redirect the attention of the reader elsewhere,
ANYwhere, except to continue reading the OP with any real interest.

Personally I'm sick of seeing these annoying replies, especially when it's
an all-too-obvious attempt to trash a thread, while pretending to be
participating in an intelligent discussion about the OP.

How about we start the New Year by naming this aberrational dumbing
down trollish behavior, and ignoring it at least, if not flagging it.

Revealed: How the FBI Coordinated the Crackdown on OccupyPublished on Sunday, December 30, 2012 by The Guardian
New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent

by Naomi Wolf

It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.

The documents, released after long delay in the week between Christmas and New Year, show a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations' knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61).

Fearful of Ban, Frenzied Buyers Swarm Gun StoresBy By JOSEPH PISANI AP Business News Writer
NEW YORK December 29, 2012 (AP)
The phones at Red's Trading Post wouldn't stop ringing. Would-be customers from as far away as New York wanted to know if the Twin Falls, Idaho gun shop had firearms in stock. Others clamored to find out if their orders had been shipped.

Overwhelmed, gun store manager Ryan Horsley had to do what no employee would ever think of doing just days before Christmas: He disconnected the phone lines for three whole days.

FDA Quietly Pushes Through Genetically Modified Salmon over Christmas BreakPublished: Thursday 27 December 2012
“These fish of course threaten the very genetic integrity of the food chain when considering the fact that they will ultimately be unleashed into waters with other salmon and likely even the ocean at large.”

While you were likely resting or enjoying time with friends and family over the Christmas break, the United States Food and Drug Administration was hard at work ramming through genetically modified salmon towards the final acceptance process. Despite the frankenfish actually being blocked by Congress last year over serious health and environmental concerns, the FDA is making a massive push to release the genetically modified salmon into the world as the FDA-backed biotech giant and creator of the fish AquaAdvantage screams for profits.

These fish of course threaten the very genetic integrity of the food chain when considering the fact that they will ultimately be unleashed into waters with other salmon and likely even the ocean at large. The AquaAdvantage genetically modified salmon have been engineered through genetic manipulation to grow double the size and weight of the average salmon. Hitting 24 inches instead of 13 and weighing in at 6.6 pounds instead of 2.8, the GM fish contains both a gene from another salmon known as the Pacific Chinook as well as an eel-like fish.

After all, as I understand it, many of it's board members also work in the munitions industry, speaking of which, actually these munitions industries should be targeted with lawsuits as well.

I'm no legal expert, so don't know if this makes any sense from a technical legal standpoint, but it certainly makes LOTS of sense to me at a personal, moral, ethical, emotional level. Of course it is only ONE of the many things we can and I think should do to stop this murderous madness that's running amuck. HUGE lawsuits seem only fair and just on the face of it, given that this rash of shootings is becoming a national nightmare, more dire than any threat from foreign terrorists. We are suffering from a mass psychosis, and are literally committing suicide collectively; as these horrific mass shootings are beginning to occur as an almost daily occurance, and are getting increasingly macabre, "unthinkable" and horrific. Over the past month or so, it seems that these shootings are happening with increasing frequency, with no signs of slowing.

When will the NRA and munition$ titan$ be happy? Will they be happy when the$e human $acrifice$ in the public $quare occur every day? Maybe the NRA $hould buy a huge public $tadium, where thi$ gha$tly ma$$ death ritual can be at lea$t organized a bit, so you know, the NRA could charge admi$$ion at the door, and $ell TV right$ to cable network$.
<-- i.e. please do not regard above comment as a serious idea. I don't want to be giving the NRA any "ideas".

But to be deadly serious for a moment, I can't help wondering just how many other 'bad guys' are out there? ... sitting like a ticking time bomb, with their piles of guns and ammo waiting to be "set off" by another NRA talking point, or by Rush Limbaugh, or by (fill in the blank)? I don't even like thinking about the truth of this, but how can we NOT think about it, so as to sort it out personally and collectively?

This has GOT TO STOP.

Would such class lawsuits make any legal sense, if brought forth by say the National Lawyers Guild representing the families and loved ones of those killed in mass shootings or random gun violence?

My best guess is : "Well, we clearly MUST arm ALL of our firefighters nationally, so they can adequately defend themselves from all those 'bad people' with guns"!!! --> with thought balloon saying "Now let's see. 1.5 million firefighter$ X $850 (price of an AR-15), that's $9.6 TRILLION. Not bad.">

Of course, M$M reporters will probably forget to ask: "Mr. LaPierre, just how do you think all those 'bad people' got their guns in the first place?"

Whatever happened to the fact that SS has NOTHING to do with the deficit???

Whatever happened to our Unicorn fantasies of all the wonderful things "Obama
could use his 2nd term to accomplish", that he 'couldn't afford to do' before being
re-elected???? Instead, we are being handed a "Grand Sell-Out"???????

Mr. President, you are bringing shame and disgrace to your office and your party by
letting this so-called "chained CPI" cut to Social Security slither up onto "The Table".

Just go over the fucking cliff, as recommended by Congressman Peter DeFazio and
others. It would be better to DO NOTHING than what you appear to be doing now,
i.e. considering these despicable and unnecessary cuts to Social Security.

POSTSCRIPT: As we are seeing here, having a 2nd Term POTUS can also have some
serious DOWNSIDES as well.

Obama can piss off whoever he wants to now, be it Wall St. or Seniors, along
with his entire Progressive base of REAL DEMOCRATS who would NEVER stoop to the
level of fucking with SS or Medicare.

Clearly Obama is just saying FU to millions of people who put their trust and hope in him
to use his 2nd term in an honorable and constructive manner, to make the "tough decisions"
in a way that is NOT ON THE BACKS OF THE POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE.

In the wake of the unthinkable massacre in Connecticut, pro-gun ideologues are once again calling for ordinary citizens to arm themselves as a solution to mass shootings. If only the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School had possessed a M-4 assault rifle she could've stopped the killer, they say. This latest twist on a long-running argument isn't just absurd on its face; there is no evidence to support it. As I reported recently in our in-depth investigation, not one of the 62 mass shootings in the United States over the last 30 years has been stopped this way. More broadly, attempts by armed civilians to intervene in shooting rampages are rare—and are successful even more rarely. (Two people who tried it in recent years were gravely wounded or killed.) And law enforcement overwhelmingly hates the idea.

Those pesky facts haven't stopped the "arm America more!" crowd from pressing the argument with alleged examples of successful armed interventions. The problem is, the few examples they keep using—in which they depict plain old folks acting heroically and with definitive results—fall apart under scrutiny. Here are five of them and why they don't work:

*Appalachian School of Law shooting in Grundy, VirginiaGun rights die-hards frequently credit the end of a rampage at the law school in 2002 to armed "students" who intervened. They conveniently ignore that those students also happened to be current and former law enforcement officers, and that the killer, according to police investigators, was out of ammunition by the time they got to him. (continued at link below)

I just got this weird "survey" email from a group I hadn't heard of, called "Revive
America USA". It read as follows:

Dear Fellow American:

If you have a moment, please take this Urgent National Survey on Gun Control. Your views are important to us,
and even more so now as Second Amendment rights become part of the larger national debate over the future
of America.

Go Here Now to Take the Survey

Thank you for your participation, and please forward this email to your friends.

Yours for America,
Bob Adams
President
Revive America USA

I'd never heard of this group, so took the survey. There were only two questions
1) do you agree with Mayor Bloomberg that we need immediate action on gun control in wake of Connecticut massacre?
2) Do you think Bloomberg is saying this just to score cheap political points against Obama?

I answered "yes" to the first question, and said "I'm not in a position to know Bloombergs motives for what he's saying"
to the second one.and pushed "Submit" button. THEN that took me to THIS page.
http://www.presidentdowngrade.com/

Right Wing bait & switch Alert! I regret having even filled out their damn "survey". So
this is just a heads up, if you get such an email from this group, I'd recommend just deleting it.

Conversion kits are prolific on the interwebs, including
everything from commercially available "Conversion Kits",
to do-it-yourself at-home gerry-rigs, demonstrated on
YouTube. This means that most ANY weapon sold as a
"Semi" automatic, can easily be converted to FULLY-
automatic.

One of these posts was particularly interesting, regarding availability of fully
automatic firearms at "gun shows". "The reality is that semi-automatic rifles,
such as AK-47s or AR-15s, are widely available and sold at gun shows from
private sellers that do not run background checks. Further conversion kits
that make these rifles indistinguishable from machine guns are also widely
available at gun shows."
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2011/06/07/the-truth-about-gun-shows-al-qaeda-and-automati/180357

_____^_____^_____^_____^_____^_____^_____^_____^_____^_____
I share this because, sadly, in the light of the increasingly frequent number of mass
shootings in America, it is becoming crystal clear that --at the very least-- we in the
USA need to do SOMETHING to curb the proliferation of assault weapons; and this is
one of the most perplexing hurdles that we will need to clear in order to actually accomplish
such an ambitious goal -- rather than just go through a bunch of posturing pretending
we've really done something that we really haven't.